Pokémon Go treats players with Halloween tricks

Pokémon Go is treating the trainers who are still playing with a Halloween update.

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Even more "spooky" pocket monsters, including the ghostly Gastly, Haunter and Gengar, the psychic Drowzee and Hypno, as well as the batty Zubat and Golbat, will spring up on your screen as you walk around playing the game.

Best of all, from Oct. 26 to Nov. 1, you'll earn double the amount of in-game candy every time you catch, hatch and transfer Pokémon. And if you've buddied up with a Pokémon, he or she will earn candy four times as fast.

The holiday bonus looks like an attempt to get people back in the game, since the player pool has plunged in the last couple of months. Some 50 million were trying to catch 'em all after the game's record-breaking summer debut, but the app market analyst Apptopia reported that number plummeted to 32.4 million as of September.

The data analysts at Slice Intelligence also reported Pokémon Go's in-game paying population (the players who spend real money to buy "lures" and "Poke balls" to catch the cute, imaginary monsters) dropped by 79% as of mid-September.